STORIES FROM ABROAD

Working at CRI has been an interesting and rewarding experience. CRI is China’s largest international radio network, covering over forty different languages worldwide. I was positioned in the online English department. My four week internship was divided into the news team and the webcast team. In the news team my role was to translate and polish articles from Chinese to English as well as writing my own articles to be published on the website. I found these tasks challenging because the Chinese news writing style is different from English in structure and content.

The most fulfilling part of the internship is being able to attend media events and practice interviewing techniques. For the webcast team, I participated as a journalist in the opening ceremony for the Olympic Family Hotel, a media promotion for a Cairo Opera at the National Centre of Performing Arts and a media conference for the launch of Olympic commemorative bank notes. I was responsible for writing the news feature, making audio recordings and editing photographs which were published on the website.

I was also fortunate enough to film video recordings of news and feature stories to accompany written articles for CRI. Without any formal camera presenting training, the filming process proved to be an eye-opening experience. I was astonished by the amount of time and effort that was put in to produce a ten minute segment. The filming practice played a crucial part in developing and improving my confidence levels and speaking skills.

During my time at CRI, I have established good connections with my colleagues. With the support of CRI and the in-country agent, I was able to integrate smoothly into with the Chinese working life, sometimes working overtime on weekends to meet deadlines as well as participating in their annual swimming competition. I have thoroughly enjoyed the internship and through it, I have gained a better understanding of my future career direction.

Lisa, Online English Department at China Radio International,  Beijing

 

After graduating from Monash University with a Bachelor of Business Management and Economics, it was rather difficult to find a job in the real world. Then I got offered a wonderful opportunity to learn from the fastest growing organization in China and the world's third largest computer manufacturing company: The Lenovo Group.

Lenovo was the major Olympic partner for the 2008 Olympics Games in Beijing, China. The best thing about working in China was that you learn a lot more about yourself. The rich Chinese culture makes living here so different from Australia and learning how the Chinese do business is probably one of the most valuable lessons I have learnt here to date. My role at Lenovo was working in the Service Delivery Department reporting to the Director who was in charge of all Service Related issues in China. My primary role was to learn how each of the other managers did their job, but there was only one specific task that I was given to do: The Lean Six Sigma Program.

The best aspect of the internship was not only that I had great support from the people at Lenovo Shanghai, but the staff working this program were on standby to help whenever I needed. They keep consistent contact with you to ensure that you are doing okay at your host company. I felt like they really cared about my wellbeing of my work-state. This I felt, was very important.

M. Du, assistant to the Director of Service Delivery Department, Lenovo Group, Shanghai